The Greatest Brigade

A history of the impressive, predominantly Irish American brigade of the Union Army and their role in its victory over the Confederacy.

Faugh a Ballagh! Clear the Way!

This is the story of a band of heroes that covered the Yankee retreat at Bull Run, drove the Confederates from the Sunken Road at Antietam, and made charge after charge up Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg. The gallantry of the Irish Brigade won them the admiration of the high command of both North and South, earned them seven Medals of Honor, and after the war, went a long way to helping the Irish assimilate into the American mainstream.

Shouting their Gaelic battle cry, the men of the Irish Brigade charged across the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War and into the realm of legend. The Greatest Brigade is a grand narrative history of these Irishmen who fought in every major battle in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War, including Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Appomattox.

Praise for The Greatest Brigade

“An exciting journey through the major battles of the Civil War alongside the members of the famed Irish Brigade. Well researched, compellingly written, filled with fascinating illustrations, and with a story that holds the reader with a “bulldog grip,” Thomas Craughwell has written a regimental history that deserves to be on every Civil War lover’s bookshelf.” —Jason Emerson, author of The Madness of Mary Lincoln and Lincoln the Inventor

“This engrossing book will appeal both to Civil War buffs and to those interested in the Irish American experience.” —Library Journal

“A paean to the Irish immigrants who fought for their adopted homeland. . . . This spirited hagiography marches through the battles fought by the Army of the Potomac’s justly renowned Irish Brigade at quickstep pace. Each chapter reads like an episode of a History Channel documentary.” —Historynet